Sombra rework and buffs (Old, but relevant once again)

[RaysofGlory-1937]

UPDATE 2020

With Sombra gaining traction in OWL and GM, i’m afraid Sombra might be in the sights of a nerf since we all know Sombra is boring for those OWL big bucks, and I’d rather that not happen for a third time.

So, shameless grave bump? Yes. Yes it is.

UPDATE So, Sombra got a “buff”…

@Molly

Sombra

Translocator

• Cooldown increased from 4 to 6 seconds
• Cooldown now begins immediately upon deploying the beacon or if it is killed by an enemy

…And, she got a nerf slapped onto her as well. Not to sound like “They didn’t choose any of the buffs I wanted!”, but this seriously doesn’t help her kit, at all

So, unfortunately, this thread shall go on.

Since Sombra is now effectively a throw pick again, its time to throw some age old suggestions into the ring.

CHARACTER STATS

• Change movement speed from 5.5 to 6.0, the same as Genji and Tracer.

• Opportunist now allows Sombra to deal an extra 10% damage to hacked targets.

Since Sombra is more or less defined as a “flanker”, “infiltrator”, or a “Scout”, the downtime between a failed hack run should be trimmed to make her less of a weight on her team. Her increased speed would allow her to reach locations faster, checkpoints quicker…the list goes on. It would be a QOL change that would help her.

For the opportunist changes, this would increase her damage without sacrificing any part of her kit for a form of burst damage. It would give Sombra the necessary damage she needs to be an effective DPS.

HACK

• Hack is no longer forced into a two second cooldown when shot.

• LOS changes reverted, but adjusted to half of their values.

• Hack speed reverted to previous patch speed (Its .65 seconds now. Old speed was .8, which allows for more reaction time.). Damage threshold of 10 added.

With the current hack speed, its nearly impossible to react to unless you manage to get her coming out of stealth. . But, in multiple moments and examples, hack more often gets screwed over by LOS, or with the rise of heroes like Moiras orb that can randomly just tickle her once and put her hack down for 2 seconds in a team fight. 2 seconds is a LOT in a fight.

The problem with the new hack speed is that no one can react to it.

The LOS change really only benefits Tracer, who can simply blink out of a hack and was mainly done at the time when dive was extremely popular out of fear it would invalidate her.

As for her slow hack speed, this would actually allow people who are in the process of getting hacked to react to Sombra hacking them. If they ignore the hack, then they are punished by being hacked, or if they’re unable to aim in time. Sombras base hack speed was fair, but it had its issues, such as one damage cancelling it from a stray Moira orb, or a D.VA bullet, which is why a damage threshold would make her hack feel more secure. Any hero will be able to do 10 damage in the time it takes Sombra to hack, making it fair for both parties.

STEALTH

• Sombras camo no longer lasts forever, but is instead on a meter that lasts roughly 10 seconds if continuously running. The meter recharges slowly whilst in camo, but only if standing still.

• The meter depletes quickly if shot, revealing Sombras location momentarily, but it will not knock her out of stealth unless the meter is low enough.

• Stealth meter takes 8-9 seconds to fully recharge back to full. It can be used at anytime.

• Sombras speed while in stealth increased back to 75%.

These changes will not only make Sombra more versatile assassin/flanker/infiltrator, w/e you wanna call her, but it would make her much more dangerous when she pops in and out of stealth. This would allow her to be on the field more rather than translocating away and repeating the redundant, mundane process of setting up again.

TRANSLOCATOR

• Damage threshold of 10 added.

• Only a second to use translocator if manually destroyed.

• Reduce cooldown to 4s once more.

• Allow it to stick to surfaces such as walls/ceilings

Make it so sombra can stick her translocator to the ceiling so I can drop down on people while screaming in a Batman voice

sombra got nerfed. This sounds awesome and fun. I am the night.

I’ll more than likely get a lot of flak for this, but the infinite translocator is kinda nice. Though, what I dont like is the fact one damage is enough to stop her trans-locator in the middle of an escape, especially from a stray D.VA bullet, or any bullet for that matter. I dont have much to say about translocator, as other parts of her kit are in dire need.

Oh, and one more thing…

SUGAR SKULL ABOVE HACKED ENEMIES HEADS.

Sugar skulls appear above enemies in PvE, but not for players? A skull is a lot better visually to see how much time you have left on a hack rather than the wavy barely seeable lines on a hacked target. WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN IMPLEMENTED YET AHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGHHH

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/another-sombra-hack-visual-update/311834?u=raysofglory-1937

So... Why Don't we Have Sugar Skulls?

I don’t understand, like… they are already in the game. It happens with Turrets, Bob, Orisa Drum… so why can’t we just have it? I don’t think it’s balance because Sombra sits unlike Symm, Torb and other such heroes with low pick rates and high win rates… Sombra has low pick rates and low win rates. Even OWL stats aren’t all that stellar. I don’t art via computers so I am genuinely asking, is it a programming thing? Do turrets get a different registration that players don’t? if so, why make the…

Hacked targets need sugar skulls above their heads

/title No, but for real it would help Sombra and non Sombra players alike who to prioritize since the little hack swirls on some hero skins make it seem invisible. Plus, it would be nice if the skull also depleted depending on the length of the hack left. That way you can react and pull out when it reaches zero, or position yourself better. Good Sombras already do that, but it would be helpful regardless.

Sombra Sugar Skull

ISTG They will do literally anything, but make this appear above hacked targets heads. Think about it. We have been asking for this for over a year and a half and they haven’t given it to us. WHY?

Sugar skull over hacked enemies heads

Let us have the sugar skull used for health packs appear above the heads of enemies that are hacked. The red hack effect on top of a red enemy silhouette makes it’s hard to tell at a glance if an enemy is hacked and doesn’t show how long the hack will last. Please Blizzard, Sombra players have been begging for this QOL change for ages.

Just...give hacked enemies the sugar skull healthpacks have

There’s a post on the sombra main reddit/ picture I’ve seen hovering around showing this on training bots. If someone of a higher level could link to it. This is all I’m going to ask for. I’m not going to ask for a base movement speed buff. I’m not going to ask for translocator to have more than 5 hp. I’m not asking for a damage threshold. I’m not asking for a total revert. I’m Just asking for this one change. If the goal is to make it easier to get value out of her, then do this. Because it…

So Bob gets a Sugar skull, but players don't

The omnics in Uprising were one thing, but Bob (praised be his name), who is in almost all respects treated as a player, getting one of the QoL features requested for the longest time for Sombra (since her release, to be exact), without it showing up on regular players, stings a bit. They even made the effects, including the swirly pixels, purple instead of red, yet another thing being requested for two years! So please, dev team, request #9069: make the swirly effects caused by a friendly h…

OVERALL, these changes make Sombra viable on her own, but is still strong when synergized with a team. It will make her feel better to use, more smooth on the field, and will be amazing for those who know how to use her.

[RaysofGlory-1937]

Well this died really quick

[RobotWizard-116887]

I think is because everyone agrees.

Who is going to argue with something obviously right?

The changes are well thought out, and nothing over the top. What are you giving the forums to complain about?

No complaining, no comments

[Drowsckab-1655]

No. Sombra isn’t in the cool kids club so she’s never gonna get a buff

[Audacia-11538]

Love it. All of it. Especially love the idea of Hack kinda acting like a discord orb. Overall good ideas!

[Rocktopus-11683]

Somebody please buff Sombra.

Me every time she gets nerfed:

[Deykar-2772]

We all agree she needs buffs. We just dont want to sound like a broken record. Its a cry into the void anyways. The devs have proven that they dont really care about us. They still haven given her the timer skull for hacked targets yet even though thats requested since her release.

[SchWiniX-2357]

Sombra Buff/Rework [Workshop Included!]

Since Role Queue was added Sombra got a lot worst She feels horrible Clunky and slow and with this Buff/Rework I will try to fix just that. General Changes: Base movement speed increased from 5.5m/s to 6m/s Stealth: Stealth movement speed Increase will already take effect while cloaking and decloaking Cooldown Removed Added Resource meter: Resource Meter will start to drop as soon as Sombra starts Cloaking and stops only at the end of Decloaking, Sombra can freely go into and out …

Its not exactly how you proposed ot to be but here is what a resourcemeter on stealth could look like.

Dmg:
Rater then give her more dmg on hacked targets I would just add 1-2dmg per shot in general. But even that isn’t nessessary imo

For hack:
I think hack needs bugfixes and shouldn’t be changed to much.

Tl:
I like those tl changes but add a qol change so it doesn’t cancel your active reload.

[JonStriker-11942]

@RaysofGlory-1937

Sombras camo no longer lasts forever,

This, made me mad.

Until, I read this:

@RaysofGlory-1937

• but is instead on a meter that lasts roughly 10 seconds if continuously running. The meter recharges slowly whilst in camo, but only if standing still.
• The meter depletes quickly if shot, revealing Sombras location momentarily, but it will not knock her out of stealth unless the meter is low enough.
• Stealth meter takes 8-9 seconds to fully recharge back to full. It can be used at anytime.
• Sombras speed while in stealth increased back to 75%.

All in all, very nice.

@SchWiniX-2357

Tl:
I like those tl changes but add a qol change so it doesn’t cancel your active reload.

Agreed.

[Lemon-12625]

I agree she needs buffs she needs to move around faster damage threshold would help tons.

[Strawberry-11985]

I agree.

[RaysofGlory-1937]

Whew, had me for a second there

[Squashpup-1997]

Sombra needs a rework, after nearly three years it’s pretty clear she’s just not cut out for ladder and she can’t be anything other than broken OP or useless at pro rank. Even when she’s “good” on ladder she’s still one of the lowest heroes in the game other than short bursts of ‘not terrible’ here and there.

Arguing for straight buffs or anything like that is stupid when her kit just doesn’t work. All that will happen is she will either still be bad, or she will be disgustingly broken must pick tier (and no, letting every hero have a season or two of being busted is a terrible idea.)

She is entirely reliant on communication, her schtick of taking a decade to set up but being basically invulnerable is a waste of time for your team, and her get out of jail free button is just straight up bad for the game. Like old Reaper, she has two abilities that you can’t actually use during a fight. Terrible kit design.

Hack is a strong enough ability that as long as the effect is kept at a similar level of power, she’ll be fine in the long run but everything else needs to chucked out and rebuilt from the ground up.

[what-21551]

I love this! However I feel like it’s a lot to implement at once. If the developers consider this, I wouldn’t be surprised if they only push this to live:

@RaysofGlory-1937

CHARACTER STATS

• Change movement speed from 5.5 to 6.0, the same as Genji and Tracer.
• Opportunist now allows Sombra to deal an extra 10% damage to hacked targets.

[Unstable-11376]

@RaysofGlory-1937

Hack speed reverted to previous patch speed (Its .65 seconds now. Old speed was .8, which allows for more reaction time.). Damage threshold of 10 added.

i’m not sure about this.

giving enemies more of a chance to react is good, but part of what made her so trash was how slow and clunky the old hack was.

[Patroclus-21714]

How about a speed of 0.7 seconds?

I agree the old speed was pretty bad

[Patroclus-21714]

P.S.: all the other changes I agree with. they sound good

although I’m not sure if Blizz likes the idea of heroes having abilities tied to resource meters (they scrapped Torb’s scrap meter when he got reworked)

[YzI-11405]

Sombra is balanced leave her alone

[AtomicTom-21215]

6m/s movement spped is fine, if you’re going to buff the weapon then just reduce the fall off damage from 30 to 50% max. I think getting rid of Opportunist and letting the whole team see Hacked targets through walls would be a better option than the Sugar Skull, less clutter and more powerful.

[Specto-21362]

Blizzard doesn’t even need to touch Hack or Sombra’s damage, just work on her overall speed and it would make Sombra considerably better!

Movement Speed

• Movement speed increased from 5.5 to 6.0, the same as Genji and Tracer.

Stealth

• Revert Stealth to the way it was: 75% increased movement speed, with a timed duration.
• Going into Stealth lowered from 0.7 seconds to 0.2 seconds (going out of Stealth still takes 0.7 seconds).
• Sombra comes out of Stealth when she’s dealt 10 damage or more.

Translocator

• Projectile speed (when thrown) increased from 25 meters per second to 40 meters per second.
• The Translocator no longer bounce off walls or objects.